The use of needles for penetrating the body is essential in modern medicine. Their uses include injecting fluids into, or drawing blood or other fluids out of almost any part of the body. The sizes of the needles, and the associated syringe equipment, will vary according to their function.
However, regardless of the size, use, or function, the needle is inevitably a sharp and potentially hazardous object. It should be safely stored, and, more important, safely discarded after any use. This is mandatory at all health facilities, but the facts prove that, with human nature, and overworked, human hospital staffs, used needles will always be found, and will always be a potential hazard.
The potential danger in needles is, of course, in used needles that may have picked up a pathogenic microorganism of some kind from anyone using, or being injected by a needle. Once used, the needle must be considered contaminated, and, even if the risk is microscopic, it is a potential threat to the next person who, accidentally or otherwise, comes in contact with the needle. With certain deadly viruses living in a few human beings today, no gamble, however microscopic, is tolerable.
All hospitals, and other users of needles, have established systems and rules for the control of the use of and disposition of needles. Most of these are almost foolproof, and restrict the use of needles to well trained professional personnel. However, it is now these valuable people who are at risk from the casual, unprotected needle that may have been accidentally overlooked and is just lying around. Contact with this needle could be equally unpredictable. One could be standing, sitting, or in motion of any kind, and the contact could be with any part of the body.
Again, the risk of a trained medical technician coming in contact with a stray needle--let alone its sharp end--should be negligible, and, that this particular needle might be infected, would be another very remote possibility, but, where that possibility, however remote, could be lethal or harmful in any way, the stakes are still too high.
The obvious, and basic, solution to the problem would be to have a safety shield or cover over the needle, before and after it is used. This is done quite effectively in several of the systems, but, in most of the systems, it relies on the human function of putting on, taking off, and putting the safety shield back on before discarding the needle in the required manner.
What is needed is a safety shield that is part of the needle structure and that is locked in a position that covers and protects the sharp end of the needle. There must be a means for uncovering the safety shield, and activating the device for use, at least one time, but the safety shield must be returned, automatically, to its locked, protective position immediately after use.